These figures relate only to international travel in most countries the volume of domestic tourism is significantly greater than international arrivals.

Statistics concerning the number of persons engaged in self drive travel published by China Tourism Automobile And Cruise Association showed that the number of persons engaged in self drive travel has continued to grow over the last five years. The share of such tourists as a proportion to domestic tourists has stabilized at above 50 .

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the tourist industry of the Territory is geared towards the upper end of the market and is based mainly on luxury accommodations and yacht charters, with yachting visitors outnumbering hotel guests in most years.

According to the World Tourism Organisation (WTO), the number of international tourism arrivals is expected to increase by 4.1 per cent annually to reach close to 1.6 billion international arrivals by the year 2020.

Data released by the Czech Tourism Authority showed that the number of Chinese tourist arrivals to the Czech Republic has soared from 80,000 in 2010 to 250,000 in 2014.

There were 61,743 hotel arrivals in 2003, an increase over 2002, in which 53,417 hotel arrivals were registered.

Summary of tourism growth statistics

Land based tourism has also increased greatly from 106 tourists in 1996 1997 to 878 in 2004 2005, as shown in table 4.

Today's online tourism is a very dynamic market, and the number of providers, both generalists and niche players, is rapidly increasing.

Eco tourism, cultural and natural heritage tourism, health and medical tourism and adventure tourism are some of the tourism niches that are increasingly marketed by destinations and tourism enterprises in developing countries.

The overall total of visitor arrivals reached a record 2.6 million, representing an increase of 12.2 per cent over the 2003 total.

More and more people have the desire and means to travel and the World Tourism Organization is predicting over 1,500 million international arrivals by 2020, more than double the current level.

There are some encouraging signs in terms of market response, with a majority of tourists being concerned about the quality of the environment in destinations where this may affect their own enjoyment, and an increasing awareness among tourists of the impacts of tourism on local environments and communities.

Tourism is also a major source of employment, supporting 74 million jobs directly according to a World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) estimate, and 215 million (8.1 per cent of the world total) if all the indirect economic effects of the sector are taken into account.

Japanese arrivals were recorded at more than 900,000, representing a 37 per cent increase from 2003 arrivals and accounting for a significant part of growth in the tourism sector.

The majority of developing countries are mainly concerned with setting up informative e tourism websites to market their destinations.

In terms of reservation services, the majority of DMOs in developing countries support the promotion of tourism in their country mainly by advertising the contact details of tourism providers.

World Tourism Organization (WTO)

The systems should facilitate interoperability between local tourism enterprises and foreign brokers and tourism portals, including traditional tour operators, online agencies, Internet travel specific search engines or online intermediaries specialized in tourism niches.

The adoption and usage of e business practices will facilitate the evolution of the traditional tourism systems and the integration of tourism enterprises into the digital economy.

We train corporate travel agents for the travel industry.

Tourism charm town How does charm mesmerize tourists

Contributing factors for the successful integration of local tourism enterprises into international tourism markets are adequate e tourism strategies that focus on tourism innovation in terms of tourism products and adoption of e business tools such as destination management systems.

Meanwhile, there are only a handful of online tour companies and traditional travel agencies that develop proprietary products for self drive travel. Many online travel platforms only sell self drive travel products provided by some suppliers. Some self drive travel clubs are also key suppliers.

For the large majority of developing countries, their share in the international tourism market, in terms of both international tourism arrivals and receipts, is still small.

ICTs help DMOs and tourism providers organize their resources (databases, data processing), network with business partners, and distribute and market products on the web.

The main beneficiaries of a DMS are potential travelers, the providers of tourism products and services, national travel agents and outbound travel agents, national tourism institutions, IT providers and investors.

Tourism niches such as ecotourism one of the fastest growing segments of the tourism industry are increasingly promoted by DMOs in many developing countries, allowing them to diversify their tourism offer.

The labour force of around 12,200 is engaged primarily in tourism (25 per cent), government employment (21 per cent) and construction (10 per cent).

English and other European languages are spoken in most hotels, shops and restaurants in major tourist areas.

Internet services are also available in most leading hotels and at cyber cafés in Bangkok, especially in major tourist areas.

In 2016, domestic tourism numbered some 4.44 billion persons, with self drive travel accounting for approximately 60 of total tourists in domestic tourism. By 2020, the size of the self drive travel market is expected to exceed RMB1 trillion.

Sustainable consumption in tourism integrates sustainability issues in the selection of destinations and service providers and in the tourists' behaviour during their stay at the destination.

Most of the hotel rates are better than the normal published rates and are commissionable to travel agents at 10 per cent of the gross selling price and 14 per cent for CTO agents.

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At the talkfest, the Baoji Tourism Development Committee and the Urumqi Tourist Administration signed a tourism strategic cooperation agreement between the two places.

In order to market their tourism products efficiently, destination and tourism providers should keep abreast of technological developments and standards.

Source UNCTAD elaboration of data from the World Tourism Organization.

Last year, a bombing at the popular Erewan shrine in Bangkok killed 20 people, most of them tourists from China.

Table 1 compares international tourism arrivals and receipts in the top 10 destinations in developed and developing countries in 2003.

The distribution of tourism products on the Internet complements traditional distribution channels (travel agents, national tourism offices, tourism producers, call centers, etc.) because a large number of DMOs do not yet have the capacity to develop an effective e tourism website and cannot rely only on uncertain online revenues.

Effective marketing channels include destination management organizations and tourism boards, tour operators, guidebooks, media, certification schemes, travel fairs, such as the so called business to business (B2B) and business to consumers (B2C) fairs, internet retailers and consumers' organizations.

They should create awareness of the potential of e tourism and provide incentives for the development of tourism enterprises' websites (for hotels, for instance) that could be referenced on the DMO e tourism website.